Book Review in Sailing Magazine!!
Going over the horizon
"Ed Mapes has made a career out of training sailors to become offshore passagemakers. Thriough his Voyager Ocean Passages adventures, boat show seminars and frequent articles in SAILING, Mapes preapares people for the joy and challengers of bluewater saioling. His experience and knowledge is brought to bear in Further Offshore: A Practical Guide for Sailors.
Written for experienced daysailors and coastal sailors, this book takes readers through the steps necessary to prepare themselves, their boats and crews for long-distance sailing. Along with the advice on fitting out an ocean-going sailboat, planning a voyage, and boat handling and shipkeeping, mapes provides details on such necessities as communications and safety equipment, weather forecasting, health and medical insurance, meal planning, and more. appendices providing checklists, rules of the road, reference tables and first aid procedures further enhance the book's practicality, putting together a number of useful resources in one place.
For the would-be bluewater cruiser, the seemingly endless list of "must dos" can be enough to overwhelm the sailor's psyche, short-circuiting any offshore passage before it's even begun. Mapes breaks down the process of fitting out and preparing for offshore sailing into manageable, simple to follow steps. What's more, he lets readers know what to expect once at sea, with advice on boat maintenance and handling as well as dealing with emergency situations."
Tim Gregoire, Sailing Magazine
Voyager has made landfall in Annapolis after participating in the Annapolis - Bermuda Ocean Race. In spite of racing with relatively tired passagemaking sails and blowing out our spinnaker with three days left to race, we took a respectable sixth place in our division! Next year, we'll have a new mainsail and two new spinnakers for the Marion to Bermuda race, and we expect to do much better. We are already taking applications from sailors wishing to crew for the 2009 race. We are looking for those who have done some racing who wish to experience an ocean race.
Voyager will be available in the Chesapeake all summer for sailing lessons, beginner to advanced offshore passagemaking, so contact us if you'd like to discuss lessons.
The 2008 Spring Voyage (St. Thomas - Bermuda and Bermuda - Annapolis) contained almost every element that sailors can experience. Calms, light winds, breathtakingly beautiful sky-lit nights, the green flash, ideal sailing conditions, and some rough going. We saw a whale cavorting in the Atlantic, hove-to through a determined thunderstorm with 50+ knot winds, and overcame an injury to the captain.
Our crews performed very well, and had experiences that will last a lifetime. Some will certainly return to the sea, and some probably will not, but they've all lived through what was beyond their imaginations a short time ago.
Breaking News!
Voyager Ocean Passages has teamed up with NauticEd to offer online e-learning sailing education opportunities. You will be able to access educational material on a wide variety of nautical subjects to read and study at your own pace. Each "clinic" concludes with a test; when you've passed the test you'll receive a certificate from NauticEd. These clinic modules will be ideal to further your sailing knowledge, get ready to sail in the spring time, or to prepare for an ocean passage! We'll soon add sections on our Home Page and on the Seaworthy School of Sail page with information and access to the clinics. We're very excited about this new partnership, and are happy to offer this service to our sailing friends. Check out the new On-line Sail Training page.
Standing Room Only audiences for all seminars at the Miami International Boat Show! Some folks even sat behind the viewing screen, only able to see the laptop computer images. What fantastic, enthusiastic audiences, eager to learn more about sailing. Thank you very much, everyone who attended a seminar or stopped by to chat at the booth. It was a great pleasure to meet so many sailors in Miami.
